Getting Started FAQs

The OSF is undergoing a Project Transition for more information on how this may affect you or your OSF content see this GUIDE

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About Open Science Framework and Center for Open Science

What is Center for Open Science (COS)?

The Center for Open Science (COS) is a non-profit organization with the mission of increasing the openness, integrity, and trustworthiness of research. By supporting communities with infrastructure, we allow researchers to focus on their research and on growing communities around open and transparent practices. Please see our Strategic Plan for more information about our mission and organization.

What Is The Open Science Framework (OSF)?

The OSF is a free, open-source platform for creating and linking transparent research records. Researchers can use OSF to register study plans, publish preprints through community-run services, and linking those records to related data, materials, code, publications, and other results stored in other repositories or systems.

How does the Center for Open Science (COS) relate to The Open Science Framework (OSF)?

OSF is maintained and developed by the Center for Open Science (COS), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. COS is supported through grants from a variety of supporters, including federal agencies, private foundations, and commercial entities. Read more about our finances.

Content Plagiarism, Review, and Appeals Procedures

If you suspect content on the OSF of being plagiarized or your data has been misused within OSF, please report it to support@osf.io. Make sure to include the URL and any evidence you have supporting the claim (NOTE: OSF staff are not subject matter experts, so the more documentation you provide the faster the process will proceed).

OSF support staff will then investigate the claim. If content is in obvious violation of Terms of Use. it will be removed. If the claim is verified, support staff will reach out to the users in question (if possible) to determine if there were mistakes or intentional misrepresentation of their work. If adequate evidence is not provided to refute the decision, content will be removed and subject to an appeals process. Those claims that cannot be resolved by OSF Support Team will be escalated to a COS Review Board for dispute resolution. NOTE: OSF Support staff do not carry out a full academic review of content or careers and can only review content on the OSF associated with a user’s OSF account.

Note: If content is within a specific provider hosted on OSF, disputes will be forwarded to their moderation team for review.

How much does OSF service cost?

The OSF is free to use for researchers. Non-research use cases are forbidden and will be removed from the platform immediately.

How can it be free? How are you funded?

What if you run out of funding? What happens to my data?

OSF is committed to the persistence of the scholarly record by ensuring that publicly shared research objects and their associated metadata remain persistent, discoverable, and accessible through sustainable strategies and persistent identifiers. Read more in the Backup and Preservation FAQs.

How will OSF be useful to my research?

OSF integrates with the scientist's research activity workflows by enabling them to document study designs as well as publish outcomes with preprints, and link those objects to data, code, materials, researchers, and research organizations via persistent identifiers.

What accessibility standards does OSF adhere to?

COS maintains the OSF and associated support resources as a free service to maximize access and opportunity for research producers and consumers of any means or experience level. We aim to achieve WCAG AA compliance for accessibility and to support language translations. COS is committed to responding to community needs and will continue to make resources available in new languages and with additional accessibility evaluation.

Find more information in the Center for Open Science Accessibility Conformance Report.

How can I contact the OSF team if I have a question that the FAQs or OSF guides don’t answer?

Send us a message and we'll be happy to help you. Contact our support team by emailing us at Support@cos.io

How can I get started on using OSF?

Anyone can create an OSF account for free at osf.io. Check out our support center for help guides to get you started. Specifically, check out our “Getting started” section for a streamlined set of guides to get you started using the OSF. These FAQs will only cover a few of the most basic questions about OSF, so it’s highly recommended that you read through our OSF guides.

How can I get started on using OSF?

What web browsers are supported by the OSF?

The OSF supports the latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and iOS Safari browsers. If you are experiencing an error or issue, please be sure to install the latest version of your browser and try the action again. If after doing so the issue persists, please email support@osf.io.

Other browsers will likely render the OSF, but all features may not work properly.

How can I help develop new features for the OSF?

Check out the open source code for OSF on GitHub or read our API docs. For more information, contact our support team by emailing us at Support@cos.io

Additional FAQ’s

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